Why has the government stopped listening to parents?
It is a fundamental principle of British society that parents are the primary educators of their children. Unlike some other nations like Germany which has a ‘Schulpflicht’ – compulsory schooling – in the UK, parents are not required to send their children to a school. Most parents do, however, because the education system in the UK has historically been very good.
Founded by churchmen and women in the days of Augustine of Canterbury in the sixth century, it has developed along with society, but has always aligned with Judeao-Christian traditions and values. These values include tolerance, fairness, liberty, freedom of thought, belief, conscience and speech, and a respect for marriage and the family.
In faith schools today, over 95% of which are church schools, traditional marriage and the family are promoted. On all metrics, children with a married mother and father have better life outcomes than those who don’t. Biology, also, is a self-evident truth. There are two sexes: male and female, determined by birth anatomy and chromosomes.
These values and understanding of scientific facts are being fundamentally eroded today. Guidelines are being given to schools and teachers which would be thought barmy even ten years ago. At the behest of militant LGBTQQIAAP* lobbying groups, government personnel and unions are telling schools to avoid using gendered words like ‘mother’, ‘father’, ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ because, they say, it may damage children. This is patent nonsense, and it is far more damaging not to affirm children as boys or girls, male or female.
The vast majority of parents agree, and are horrified, but the government seems to be listening far more to the fringe lobbyists than parents. The lobbying groups know that unless they get to children by the time they are 10-years old, they will not be able to program them with their gender confusion and anti-marriage, anti-family ideologies.
There was a recent consultation on the new, compulsory ‘Relationships and Sex Education’ programme which is to be made compulsory in all schools, including primary schools, from September 2019. It was written in such a way to make dissent almost impossible, however. There was no room in the response form to say that you did not agree, only to say what the priorities should be in the curriculum.
Currently, parents have the right to remove their children from Religious Education, and Sex and Relationship Education classes, except for lessons on the fundamental science of reproduction and chromosomes. This is right, and respects parents as primary educators. Children do not belong to the state. However, the general direction of policy and government is currently to erode this understanding, and very quickly too. The state is seeking to usurp parents’ role as primary educators, carers and guardians of their children.
Under government reforms initiated under Justine Greening, the right of parents to remove their children from many aspects of Relationship and Sex Education classes will be lost, and it is more than likely that Relationships Education – to be made compulsory in all primary and secondary schools – will contain propaganda from the LGBTQQIAAP* lobby under the guise of combatting bullying. Combatting bullying is of course, desirable and admirable, but in many cases it is being used as a Trojan horse to get primary and pre-school children to learn about anal and oral intercourse, normalise dressing up in the clothes of the opposite sex, and teach about ‘the modern family’ – where all family structures – single parent, same-sex couples, married and unmarried couples, polygamous, polyamorous – are considered equal for raising children. Lesson materials aimed at primary school children on these subjects are already available and recommended for use by some local authorities.
Tens of thousands of parents are so worried about their children being exposed to these materials that they are considering withdrawing their children from school altogether and home schooling them instead. Yet there is almost a hegemonic political consensus on deconstructing society at the fundamental level of marriage and the family through subversive education programmes at primary and pre-school level.
Of the five major national parties, only UKIP is opposed to the introduction of ‘LGBT inclusive Sex and Relationships Education’ into pre-school and primary schools. UKIP recognises there are two sexes which are biologically determined, and that the traditional family is the best fundamental unit for having and bringing up children in a stable environment for a stable and prosperous society. There is an option at the ballot box to vote against the changes which are hostile to parents and families.
Yet parents are isolated and alone, and the intimidation for speaking out can cause serious trouble. Teachers have been suspended for not calling girls who say they are boys by their ‘preferred gender’, and parents who have removed their children from school in protest at transgender propaganda have been taken to court. The law is being changed so that anyone who dissents from the new order is labelled a ‘homophobic’ or ‘transphobic’ hate criminal, and liable to be dragged through the courts.
The launch of this website is an important part of the fight back against extreme political correctness which seeks to undermine marriage and the family, and the intolerance of those who feign tolerance to silence people with traditional, Christian and conservative beliefs. I am looking forward to working with the Parent Power team and all of you who sign up, to campaign for the rights of parents to continue to be the primary educators of their children and to end the gender confusion madness, which is currently sweeping this and many other countries.
David Kurten
UKIP London Assembly Member
UKIP Education Spokesman
UKIP Candidate for Lewisham East by-election (14th June 2018)
